Giada De Laurentiis is a well-known figure in the culinary world. When people think of tasty meals, Giada De Laurentiis likely comes to mind. She is celebrated for her delicious Italian dishes and her engaging presence on television. However, behind the scenes, Giada has also focused on her personal well-being, particularly her eating habits and overall lifestyle. In a recent interview with AARP, Giada discussed her eating habits in this stage of her life. This article explores Giada De Laurentiis' approach to healthy eating, drawing from her experiences, insights, and practical tips.
Giada's Journey to Healthier Eating
Giada De Laurentiis is an Emmy award-winning television personality and celebrity chef who received her culinary education from Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. She is also a New York Times best-selling author of several books, including Everyday Italian, Giada’s Family Dinners, Everyday Pasta, Giada’s Kitchen, and Giada at Home. You might think a star chef like Giada De Laurentiis has always known how to eat right. It turns out, behind the scenes in what looks like a glamorous career, there was a lot of unhealthy eating. De Laurentiis, 50, shares that the lifestyle of a celebrity chef, Emmy Award-winning TV personality, restaurateur, bestselling cookbook author, and mom started catching up with her over the last decade. Extensive traveling made the chef, entrepreneur, writer, and television personality turn to packaged foods and sugary treats. A packed schedule, frequent traveling, and the sugar and caffeine she relied on to keep up were taking their toll. “I was spread way too thin and my body was paying the price for it,” in the form of sinus infections and other health issues, she told us.
In her new book, "Eat Better, Feel Better: My Recipes for Wellness and Healing, Inside and Out", De Laurentiis shares how she would reach for special treats and comfort food all the time. How she was happy to take brownie bite after brownie bite in front of the camera as her crew tried to get the perfect shot. How after a long day she’d order delivery or eat out, and she’d choose cheesy pastas, rich desserts, or both. She loved the way these foods tasted, but she didn’t love the way they made her feel. So she looked for ways to reboot her diet and to find ways to enjoy her favorite flavors without eating lots of foods that left her feeling bloated, tired and irritable.
Giada says that she doesn’t live on a diet. Healthy eating is important to chef and author Giada De Laurentiis, but dieting isn’t on the menu; in fact, she doesn’t believe in diets. As she says in the intro to her book Feel Good Food, “I don’t live my life on a diet. Her number one philosophy on eating is to practice moderation: Eat a little of everything and not a lot of everything.
Key Principles of Giada's Eating Philosophy
Moderation, Not Deprivation
Giada emphasizes moderation over strict dieting. “Eating well is not about eliminating foods-it’s about noting how they affect you and eating less of those that challenge your health. “Eating to feel better shouldn’t be stressful,” De Laurentiis says, adding that she “didn’t give up everything” when she decided to change her diet and lifestyle. Giada De Laurentiis says she aims to eat healthily 70 to 80% of the time, which allows some wiggle room to find the right balance. “My cooking still stays true to my Italian roots, with lots of delicious, fresh ingredients,” she told TODAY. She believes in enjoying a variety of foods while being mindful of their impact on her body. This approach allows her to maintain a balanced and sustainable eating pattern.
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Listening to Your Body
A core aspect of Giada's approach is tuning into how foods make you feel. “I started really listening to my body and eating the foods that loved me back,” she said. “That helped my body heal itself and also indicated what foods worked for my body and what foods didn’t.” She advises paying attention to how different foods affect your energy levels, digestion, and overall well-being. For example, she found that raw kale doesn’t agree with her stomach. “On the other hand, I can eat a bunch of bitter broccoli rabe without batting an eyelash,” she said. And some people can’t eat Parmesan, which is made from cow's milk. But they might do just fine with pecorino from sheep or goat cheese. “It’s all about taking it slow and really listening to your body to discover what is best for you,” she said.
The Importance of Fresh, Flavorful Ingredients
Giada prioritizes fresh, high-quality ingredients in her meals. De Laurentiis shops at local farmers markets when she can. “I find that the vegetables and fruits from a smaller seller often have way more flavor than from a larger supermarket,” she said. She recommends choosing organic foods if a farmers market isn’t an option: “You’ll notice a difference in taste.” “My cooking stays true to my Italian roots, with lots of delicious, fresh ingredients.” She believes that using flavorful ingredients not only enhances the taste of her dishes but also contributes to overall satisfaction and wellness.
Meal Planning and Preparation
To maintain a healthy diet, Giada stresses the importance of meal planning and preparation. “I used to shop for what I felt like eating in the moment, but I realized that I wasn’t buying the most nutritious ingredients or meals because of it. Planning meals helps you stay on track and not over-buy,” she said. “Eating better begins at the grocery store.” She would meal prep at the beginning of the week and batch cook things like quinoa, brown rice, roasted sweet potatoes or cauliflower, and chicken broth. This made it easy to throw lunches together,” she shared with TODAY. “Once you have everything prepped, it’s super-simple to make delicious, nutrient-dense meals in a matter of minutes.” Planning ahead helps you eat healthier throughout the week, too. If you have the ingredients you need for a healthy, satisfying, nutritious meal, you can whip that up instead of grabbing something that’s unhealthy because that’s all you have in the house. This approach ensures that nutritious options are readily available, even on busy days.
Small, Consistent Steps
Giada advocates for making small, gradual changes to improve eating habits. “Many people think there needs to be a drastic change in order to eat healthy, but that’s not true. She got a little bit healthier and mindful each day, and she reduced, but didn’t eliminate, the foods that weren’t right for her. Instead of drastic overhauls, she suggests incorporating healthier choices into your daily routine.
Giada's Daily Eating Habits
Starting the Day Right
Giada starts her day with a cup of chicken broth with a scoop of collagen. “I start every single day with a cup of bone broth with collagen powder before I have anything else, and I try to fast for 12 hours between dinner and breakfast,” she told AARP. “I know that sounds strange, but it really works for me. I used to start my day with a double espresso and I realized in my 50s that my stomach wasn’t loving that habit after all these years,” the celeb chef told Taste of Home. Warm lemon water is also a big part of her morning routine, she tells Delish. She has four small meals a day, all containing protein. This provides her with essential nutrients and supports her energy levels throughout the day.
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Lunch Choices
Although, often Giada opts for a salad, and of course, it’s not just any salad. Giada told PopSugar that she typically eats her own Candied Lemon and Arugula Salad for lunch. “I always try to get in something green,” she explained. “I love arugula and this salad recipe is the one I reach for 90 percent of the time. The dressing is from my restaurant, but it’s simple enough to use every day.” She also told Food Network that she likes to add walnuts to her salads. “The nuts give me some protein,” she said.
Dinner Preferences
While the morning meal is light on protein and high in energy-producing complex carbs, dinner has got to be protein. “If I don’t eat protein at night, I don’t sleep well,” she told Food Network via The List. Also, she aims to have dinner three hours before she turns in for the night. “I always give myself plenty of time to digest before I go to bed,” she writes in Feel Good Food. A lean animal protein is turkey, chicken, or fish. Avoid consuming any red meat or processed food during the 3-day reboot cleanse. Giada also avoids dairy and refined white sugar during the cleanse.
Fregola: A Staple in Giada's Diet
“Fregola is something I grew up on,” she said. “It’s a Sardinian pasta really, and it’s kind of like orzo. It’s a dried semolina that they put through a fine mesh that has little tiny squares, and they dry it in the sun. It’s really, really fabulous. It’s almost like the old world of making pasta in the days of my grandfather’s time. In the early 1900s, when they would dry the pasta strands on the roof of the houses in the sun, it’s the same idea that they do in Sardinia. It makes for great salads. It has a nice bite to it, so it’s not like eating oatmeal or something that’s gummy. So I love to load it up with greens and beans and all the things that add protein.
Occasional Cleanses and Hydration
While she doesn’t diet, per se, an occasional cleanse helps her reset. If Giada has been traveling and healthy eating has been difficult, she turns to smoothies to even things out. “I turn to juices and smoothies to help rewire my body,” she writes in Feel Good Food. Finally, proper hydration is essential. Make sure you start each morning with some warm water and lemon to hydrate your body. Do this first thing before your morning coffee or tea! She also recommends blending up some celery, lemon, sea salt, and water and then drinking that first thing. Celery is packed with antioxidants, is anti-inflammatory, improves digestion, and is very hydrating due to its high water content. Giada stays hydrated with tons of water sometimes with lemon or cucumber slices. “I drink a lot of water throughout the day,” she says.
Giada's 3-Day Reboot Plan
Giada’s plan consists of eating 3 meals for each of the 3 days. Giada’s reboot isn’t an all-liquid soup or shake cleanse, either. She believes in eating foods that will sustain your energy throughout the day. Choose one meal each day where you add a lean animal protein, a carbohydrate, and a healthy fat. Giada likes to save her animal protein for dinner, but you can have it at whatever meal you prefer.
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Giada was prescribed what experts call an “elimination diet.” It’s a little different than more mainstream diet like keto or paleo, because you experiment with cutting out inflammatory foods - things like sugar, gluten, dairy, alcohol - and replace them with nutritious foods. “It’s three days and totally doable,” she says. “You’ll get a quick sense of how some ingredients impact you.” According to Giada’s nutritionist, Deborah Kim, LAc, ACN, about 75 percent of us will notice a difference.
Sample Recipes from Giada's Reboot
- Green Juice: 5 oz. Pass the spinach, carrots, apples, celery, lemon, and ginger through a juice maker. Serve over ice.
- Grapefruit Mint Juice: Pass the grapefruit and mint through a juice maker. Serve over ice.
- Breakfast Smoothie: 3 tbsp. Combine all the ingredients in a blender and blend on high speed until smooth. Pour into glasses and serve.
- Another Smoothie Recipe: Combine all the ingredients in a blender and blend on high speed until smooth. Pour into glasses and serve. To make her go-to smoothie: Blend two cups of baby spinach, one cup of peeled, chopped cucumber, half of an avocado, one Fuji apple that’s been cored and diced, a quarter-cup of raw almonds, a quarter-cup of fresh basil, one tablespoon of fresh lemon juice, and one cub of ice cubes.
Reintroducing Foods
After giving your body a break of anywhere from three days to three weeks, pick one eliminated food “and reintroduce it in a heavy-handed fashion,” suggests Kim. For example, you might have milk or cheese at every meal one day.
Addressing Inflammatory Foods
“I came to understand that what made everything worse was the food I was putting in my body…A lot of these foods were inflammatory and in turn, my immune system was inflamed as well. Rather than taking the path of extreme restriction, De Laurentiis came up with a balanced plan that worked for her.
In her new book, De Laurentiis offers a strategy for identifying foods that might not quite “love you back,” i.e. that make you feel less than your best. De Laurentiis advises limiting processed foods, alcohol, sugar, dairy, caffeine, and gluten for three days, focusing on vegetables and proteins. After the three days are up, De Laurentiis says you can slowly incorporate the limited ingredients back into your diet, “but in a mindful way.” She offers an example fitting of an Italian chef: “If you discover you can’t eat parmesan, which is made from cow’s milk, try pecorino, from sheep or goat cheese. It’s all about the small adjustments.”
Anything that I know will make me feel lousy, like sugary treats and rich cream sauces, goes into the category of ‘proceed with caution,’” says Giada.
Indulgences and Balance
De Laurentiis says she aims to eat healthily 70 to 80% of the time, which allows some wiggle room to find the right balance. If you’re wondering where dessert (or the aforementioned fettuccine alfredo) fit into the equation, De Laurentiis has you covered. “Eating well is about finding the right balance for you,” she says, adding that you can still enjoy foods like chocolate and pasta, provided you do it mindfully. “I wish I could say I’m the kind of person who can eat a spoonful of frozen berries when I’m dying for chocolate, but that’s simply not true. Fries are some of my fave comfort foods,” she said. And chocolate is never off the menu. Though it certainly isn’t an every night thing, in Eat Better, Feel Better she says she limits any alcohol to once or twice per week. And wine, most likely a good Italian wine, is sometimes on the menu, “I’ve been doing that a lot more than before the pandemic,” she says.
The Importance of Supplements
To make sure all her nutritional bases are covered, she takes supplements daily (along with a monthly IV vitamin push, which delivers a concentrated dose of nutrients directly and quickly into the bloodstream).
Beyond Food: Lifestyle Practices
Eat Better, Feel Better also explores habits like fasting, meditation, and movement that complement a healthy lifestyle. While food is central to De Laurentiis’ wellness philosophy, her book also delves into the non-food rituals and routines that help her maintain balance and well-being.
Yoga and Exercise
You will never find Giada on a treadmill or pumping iron in the gym. “I am not a gym person. The idea of being strapped to a treadmill every day is my worst nightmare,” she writes in Feel Good Food. “Exercise is important,” she writes, “but I also think it’s important that you enjoy it.” In Eat Better, Feel Better she says she was introduced to yoga while pregnant with her daughter Jade and has since made it a nearly daily part of life. Another is weekly acupuncture sessions.
Crispy Rice with Swiss Chard, Escarole, and Kale Recipe
- Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the olive oil and 1 tablespoon of the sesame oil and heat for an additional minute.
- Add the scallions, ginger, garlic, and ½ teaspoon of the salt.
- Add the rice and ½ teaspoon of the salt and toss to coat with the seasonings, then spread the mixture evenly over the bottom of the pan. Cook without stirring for 2 minutes.
- Using a wooden spoon, scrape the crispy rice from the bottom of the pan and stir well to distribute, then cook again without stirring for 2 minutes.
- Add the Swiss chard stems and again cook without stirring for 2 minutes.
- Last, add the chard leaves, escarole, and kale along with the remaining tablespoon of sesame oil and 1 teaspoon salt. Cook until the greens are fully wilted and incorporated into the rice, 5 to 8 minutes.
Embracing Self-Respect and Limits
While adjusting her diet to reduce inflammatory foods made a world of difference in her health, De Laurentiis credits learning to appreciate and respect her own limits for helping her heal as well.
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